YouTube is back up; Bones

It's nearly 6:00pm here on the east coast, and YouTube is up and running once again.

Stay tuned for my thoughts on tonight's episode of Bones and CSI New York. There will be a double dose of Bones tonight- the new episode Aliens in a Spaceship is first during its usual time slot at 8:00, and then Man on the Fairway runs right after at 9:00


Bones- "Aliens in a Spaceship"

Wow. What an episode.

Summary:
Brennan wakes up in a darkened car. The radio is playing something. Trying to get her bearings, she attempts to open the doors. They're all locked. Getting more anxious, she attempts to open the window. A small avalanche of dirt pours in and she quickly rolls it back it up, having come to a horrifying conclusion. A groan from the backseat tells her someone else is in the car. Hodgins is laying in back, his leg badly broken. Both their memories are fuzzy. When he asks where they are, Brennan breaks the sobering news: they are underground. Buried. The Gravedigger.

The "Gravedigger" is a notorious serial who has been pursued by the FBI for years- a pair of agent even wrote a whole book on him. He has a very unique way of killing his victims. He kidnaps them by shocking them with a modified stungun(delivers a stronger shock) and then he buries them alive in a container that allows for 12 hours of air. He sends out a single ransom demand. If the ransom is met, the buried victim's location is given. If not, the victim will die. No negotiations.

One of the Gravedigger's containers is unearthed by a group of kids who mistake the remains for aliens- a beer vat containing twin brothers- mummified by the enclosed space. Brennan and her team is called in on account of the mummified remains. While working the case, they discovered that one twin had a broken pelvis. That twin was not meant to be kidnapped- he interrupted his brother's kidnapping and was consequently run over with the Gravedigger's car. Furthermore, the uninjured twin killed himself by jabbing a pen into his carotid in order to give his brother more air. Brennan leaves the lab at the end of the day, just as Hodgins comes in with a huge discovery. He runs off to find her. As Brennan reaches her car, she senses someone near by. However, before she can turn around, she is shocked by a stun gun. Entering the garage, Hodgins sees Brennan crumpled on the ground. Racing to her aid, he is run over by the Gravedigger in his car.

Meanwhile, Booth and Cam are having dinner. Cam is trying to convince Booth to go with her to New York. Something is holding him back though. Three guesses who. During their conversation Booth gets a call. Cam tells him to let it go to voicemail. He does, but ever the FBI agent, he has to check the message. We watch his face as he listens while Cam chatters on. His face goes from a wry grin to grim and even panicked. Cam interrupts herself to ask him what's wrong, and Booth turns the phone, turning on speakerphone. It's the Gravedigger, with a ransom demand for 8 million dollars.

In the car, Bones has raided the car and themselves for any useful items- among them, several bottles of water, two phones without batteries (regular Motorola and a Treo- both hers), a handful of pens (Hodgins points out one is a laser pointer), a bottle of very expensive perfume, camera with backup battery, a mini kit (I think mini forensics kit because they use preservative powder from it) and a copy of Brennan's book (they are in Hodgin's car).Hodgins is in a lot of pain. Brennan tells him she's worried that he's suffering from compartment syndrome, which is when the muscle swells and creates a lot pain, sometimes enough to cause shock and then death. She knows of one way to stop it. While she prepares, Hodgins writes his last letter on the title page of Brennan's book. Since the operation is to be done without anesthetic, there's a chance Brennan could send him right into shock. Scared, Hodgin confesses to Brennan that he is madly in love with Angela. ("I'm nuts about Angela. Over the moon, stupid in love." ) He also says the perfume was for Angela- it cost three grand, and he says nothing say I love you like that. Finally, he places the gag (a strip of folded cloth) into his mouth to prevent him from biting through his tongue, and holds on to the handles on either side of the car. Temperance, moved by Hodgin's confessions steels herself. Using her knife, she makes a long incision in Hodgins leg (she cut it open) as he screams in pain.

Back in the lab, the team and the two FBI agents involved in the Gravedigger case check out the garage. They find a pool of Hodgins' blood. They have a big timer set up on one of the monitors to chow how much time they have before Brennan and Hodgins run out of air. They work nonstop to locate them, without much luck. Booth goes to talk to the Cantilever group, as they are the only possible place he can get 8 million dollars in time (remember, Jack is the heir to the Cantilever fortune). By the way, 8 million is a ridiculous amount of money, the agents all say so. Without proof of life, the Cantilever group cannot meet the ransom demands. Booth and Angela both become increasingly agitated. Cam tries to decode Hodgins' notebook to find out what he was going to tell Brennan. Angela take the notebook and reads it with ease. She reveals that Hodgins often gives her notes.

Inside the car, Temperance is rigged her cellphone to the car horn, hoping to get out a message. The horn beeps, waking up Hodgins who had passed out from the pain. After filling him in, Hodgins says they will have only seconds to get out a message because the power from the car will burn out the phone (too much power in one place). Temperance agrees and says they have to figure out what to send and make it as short as possible. She says they should send something about the dirt surrounding them. Hodgins remarks that he hates the term dirt. Brennan hand him a handful of said dirt and says "Tell me something I don't know." Jack studies, sniff, and tastes (yes, TASTES) the dirt. He concludes that they are in mining country (the dirt is ash), specifically Virginia. That's still not good enough, so Jack comes up with another way to glean information from the dirt. They mix it with the perfume (it contains a chemical also present in sunblock). When Jack laments again that the perfume cost 3 grand, Brennan says she'll split the cost. Jack then confesses that he single-handedly owns the Cantilever group. Compared to him, Brennan is well off (Brennan referred to herself as rich when Jack said he was rich). Brennan then shines the laser pointer on the dirt and Hodgins use the camera to zoom in on the dirt. After a few seconds of studying the shinyness (very pretty), Hodgins knows exactly where they are. They prepare to send the text message throught the hotwired phone. Hodgins has figured out how to send a message in eight keystrokes. Brennans hands the phone to Hodgins. She leans on the horn, and Hodgins types frantically. The phone sparks and "explodes".

Back at the lab, Booth is pacing around the office. Suddenly his phone alerts him that he has a message. He races off, and soon the whole teams is trying to crack the message, which consists of several numbers and one letter. Time passes. they are hacing absolutely no luck. Booth is getting very panicked and blows up at them, saying they are running out of time. Zach pipes up, saying that they will run out of time in five seconds. We watch the timer run down to zero. Zack says, "They ARE out of time."
In the car, Hodgins and Bones have broken through the back seat and punctures a ture to get some extra air. Hodgins realizes that he can create some extra air to buy them more time by combining soda ash and lithium (backup battery from the camera and preservative from the mini kit) together to make a carbon dioxide scrubber (I think the mixture reacts to the carbon dioxide in the air, which there was plenty of, and turns it into oxygen). The mix bubbles and fizzes, and Brennan and Hodgins cheer. Brennan says now she'll have just enough time to create a bomb of sorts using the explosives from the airbags. If they are buried less than four feet underground, it could blast their way to freedom. If they are deeper though, their brains will be turned to jelly. Hodgins remarks that at least they could run for Congress then.

Above ground, the remaining team race to decipher Hodgins' message. Booth thinks the message was meant for him ("Bones' phone to my phone"). Zacks says it was for Hodgins ("he's all about dirt and Angela"). Angela says it's for Zach- it's numbers, and if it was for her, it owuld have been a line of poetry or something. Somewhere, in this ruckus, Zach finally figures out the message. The numbers describe the dirt to a specific location. The teams races down to the site with lots of agents. Of course the location turns out to be a huge dirt pit of sorts. They search for any sign, but it seems hopeless.

In the car, Brennan and Hodgins prepare to set off the airbag bomb. Jack hands her a page from her book, asking if she has anyone she wants to say something to. Brennan takes the paper, and probably wrote a letter. Clasping hands, they touch the wires together. Above ground, we see a plume of dirt rise up from the ground and a muffled explosion. Booth sees the plume and races towards it. he starts digging with his bard hands as the others join. A hand sticks out from the ground- Brennan's- and Booth pulls her out. Hodgins is pulled out, and Angela cradles his head, sobbing in relief. Eventually she leans down to kiss him. The paramedics arrive.

Angela find Hodgins in the lab, looking at the bumper sticker piece Brennan pulled out of his leg. She tells him she knows he left the hospital without being discharged and he stole a pair of crutches which she had to pay for. Hodgins admits that he can't sleep. He's afraid that when he wakes up, he'll be back in that car underground, and that he has to solve the Gravedigger case because it's haunting him. Angela tells him "Then you should come home with me." Hodgins says, unbelievingly, "What?" and Angela replies "When you open your eyes, I'll be there." Hodgins agrees.

The last scene involves Booth and Brennan sitting in the pews at a church. Booth prays as Brennan looks around, getting too analytical as always. She says, that if she were to pray, it would've been when they were about to set off the bomb. Religon was a theme in this episode as the team, especially Booth and Brennan argue about whether God exists. Ironically, Brennan has asked Booth earlier if he would take her to church so she see what it was all about0 analyze it. Booth refused, saying that wasn't right.

Blather:
*Deep breath* Whew. This was a fantastic episode. Hodgins 'fesses up about his true feelings about Angela. We can see how Angela feels as she worries about Hodgins. Trapped underground, we saw how two brilliant minds combined to try and send out clues and free themselves with nothing more than what they could find in the car. Again, we see Booth's anguish over possibly losing Brennan- how angry/anxious he gets. We even get to see Temperance's vulnerable side again. This was a very emotional episode. Bones just keeps getting better and better. That last scene where Booth rescues Brennan was a little disappointing though. I was expecting them to at least hug- you know, like in Two Bodies in the Lab. All they did was grin happily at each other. I mean, even the best of friends would after being reunited after such a traumatizing event. I love the interaction between Hodgins and Angela though. Maybe they'll be a couple now.

The next episode runs in two weeks. It's called The Headless Witch in the Woods. I like the parts where Brennan yells "Boo!" at Booth and he tells her to be serious. I wonder who she starts a relationship with.